FIG. 1A illustrates a conventional heterogeneous network 100. As shown, a plurality of cells 105 are arranged in a hexagonal grid of cells. A base station 110 serves each of the plurality of cells 105. A user equipment (UE) 115 within the cell 105 may communicate with the base station 110.
The network 100 may implement Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless macro cellular standards.
Traditionally, network optimization has depended heavily on drive testing critical markets at the advent of a new technology or when significant growth happens.
Drive tests involve gathering radio frequency (RF) information from the UE 115 at various drive route locations. Typically, these are received signal strengths of the pilots (RSRP) and signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR or RSRQ) of various cells 105 “visible” at a location of the UE 115. The signal strengths and SINRs are then manually analyzed around areas where calls degrade or drop to estimate good network parameter values to mitigate these problems.